My Desire to be a Good Rester

Emma Sanders is finishing up JK this week. She has had a schedule of 5 days a week, 3 half and 2 full. On her full days they have "rest" time. This means they lay quietly on their mat and can either sleep or just lay quietly. Sometimes the teacher plays soft music or a story for them to listen to. There have been many days that ES has gotten in the car and said, "I was not a good rester today." To which I reply, "what does that mean?" She will tell me about how she couldn't be still or just had to talk to the friend resting next to her. But there have also been days that she says, "I was a great rester today." Then she explains how she was quiet and still, she either fell asleep or she just lay quietly listening to the music or story. The ironic part is that the days she tells me she has been a good rester she is always in a better mood in the afternoon. She is not near as dramatic and whiny as the days when she did not rest well. And I get it. And more importantly I think in this season of my life the Lord is teaching me to be a good rester. My heart's desire is to rest well but I struggle with my fleshly desire to move, talk to a friend next to me, sometimes just flip and flop in anxiousness. I mean good grief I get testy when the spinning rainbow pops up on my computer telling me to wait a minute before it can open a program. So sit still and rest are not two things I do naturally well.

There have been some transitions lately in our life with friends moving, Preston moving on to high school, just life really. And there will always be those, I think sometimes more than others. But what I want is to be a good rester in the middle of it. I don't want to try to control, move, talk, or force things to go my way. And I think what I am learning most importantly is that I don't want to rush to the next thing just to get out of what feels hard or uncomfortable.  I want to learn what it really looks like to be still in the midst of chaos, change, and to listen to the soft music that our Father plays in the background through his creation, to listen to him tell me with his peaceful quiet voice a story, the story he has laid out before me, the perfect plan he has, one step at a time.

And just like my 5 year old daughter on the days that I am not a good rester I am way more dramatic, antsy, and just down right whiny. And quite the opposite, the days that I rest well are the days that I walk with peace and joy trusting in the goodness of the promises of my King.

Mark 6:31 And He said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while."

Psalm 37:7  Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him